Cotton separating and cleaning machine



COTTON SEPARATING AND CLEANING MACHINE Filed Jan.- 21, 1927 firroe/vars In earlier types of machines, such as that tion to each other that the seed .cotton in 60 '35 cover or reclaim cotton which would otherthrough by the saw cylinder to the dofier. 85

Patented Nov. 5, 1929 V v 4 UNITED STATES PATENT; OFFICE JOHN E. MITCHELL, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI COTTON SEPARATING AND CLEANING MACHINE Application filed January 21, 1927. Serial No. 162,597.

This invention relates to certain new and cotton is delivered from one separating unit useful improvements in cotton extracting to another and in each successive treatment, and cleaning machines, and has for its genthe hulls and trash separated from the coteral object to provide a machine of this ton pass out of the machine.

5 character which, in operation, will produce According to the present invention, the 55 a higher degree of separation between the elements of a saw cylinder, hullboard, kicker cotton and the hulls and trash mixed thereroll and doffer, characteristic of prior mawith than has been found possible with machines of my invention, are duplicated two chines of this kind heretofore devised by me. or more times and are arranged in such reladisclosed in my prior Patent No. 1,383,009, being doffed from the first saw cylinder is I have employed two saw cylinders with a thrown onto another saw cylinder where the hullboard co-operat-ing with each saw cylsame cleaningoperation is repeated, and from inder, the second or lower cylinder being the second to the third cylinder, and so on,- I 5 used for recovering or reclaiming cotton from the operation being repeated as often asnec- 65 the hulls and trash discharged from the cylessary to effect a thorough separation ofall 1 inder above. In this and all similar matrash and hulls from the seed cotton. chines where 'a series of separations have been In order that the purpose of this arrange- -made by the action of saw cylinders carryment may be better understood, I would state 2 ing the cotton against rotating kicker or hullthat in the use of a. single combination of To ing rollers, the extra separations have althe elements above referred to, a complete ways been made for the purpose of avoidand thorough separation of the foreign mating waste of cotton with the hulls and trash, ter from the seed cotton cannot be effected, rather than to effect a more complete sepafor. the reason that when the cotton is carration of hulls and trash from the cotton. In ried by the first saw cylinder under the first 7 other words, with the single separation. kicker roll, only a portion of each lock of brought about by the combination of the saw cotton is brushed or scraped by the rotatcylinder, kicker roll and hullboard, considering kicker roll, and while that portion of v able cotton will escape' with the hulls and each lock of cotton actually coming into contrash while, at the same time, considerable tact with the kicker roll on the first saw so hulls and trash will pass through with the cylinder may be thoroughly cleaned, any cotton; trash or hulls underneath the cotton engaged It has, therefore, been necessary to make by the saw cylinder, where it doesnot come additional separations in an attempt to ren n wt' h the lfir ll, is carried wise be wasted with the hulls and trash, and By duplicating or continuing the cleaning, this has been done in the types of machines operations, obvio ly a ve y h r ugh nd referred to; but it has now become necescomplete separation ofhulls and trash from sary, by reason of the rougher cotton-harthe seed cotton canv be efi d, due vto he 4o vesting methods now practiced, to subject the fact that the position of the locks of cotton cotton, separated from the main body of will be continually changed so'thathulls or hulls and trash, to one 'or' more additional trash which may not have been engagedby cleaning actions for the purpose of remov- I thekicker roll of the first saw cylinderwill ing more of the trash and hulls. q inevitably be engaged bythe kicker roll of v It will be readilyseen that in priormathe second or successive saw cylinders} chines affording successive treatments, such I The invention is'illustrated in -the'accomas I have referred to, all of the hulls, trash panying drawings, which represents a crossand cotton escaping from, the initial treatsectional view of my improved machine. m 'nt must be dealt with in subsequent treat- Referringto thisdrawing, the numeral lin- 50 In nts, whereas, in my present invention, the dicatesa casing having aninlet spout 2 at one end in Which are located feed rollers 3. Beneath these feed rollers is mounted for rotation a breaker cylinder 4, the mixed cotton and hulls being delivered to the first saw cylinder 5 by the combined action of the feed rollers and breaker cylinder. Mounted above the saw cylinder 5 is a kicker roll 6 and located at a suitable point beyond the kicker roll is a dotting cylinder 7 for removing the cotton from the saw cylinder 5. Depending from the top of the casing beyond the dotting cylinder 7 is a partition 8, and slightly beyond this partition is mounted a second saw cylinder 9 with a co-operating kicker roll 10 and doifer cylinder 11. Beyond this kicker roll is a second partition 12, saw cylinder 13, kicker roll 14, and do'ifer cylinder 15. There may be as many cleaning units, comprising, essentially, a saw cylinder, kicker roll and doflier cylinder, as desired, but for convenience, I have restricted the illustration to an arrangement of three of such cleaning units. vBeyond the last saw cylinder there is an opening 1G in the casing through which the cleaned' cotton is discharged. (lo-operating with the first saw cylinder 5 is a hull-board 17, the lower end of which defines a space 18 past the first saw cylinder for the escape of hulls. Beneath thissaw cylinder there is a guard 19 terminating at one end in an inclined hullboard 20 co-operating with the second saw cylinder 9, its lower end defining a space 21 between it and the saw cylinder for the escape of hulls. In like manner, beneath the saw cylinder 9 there is a guard 22 which terminates at one end in a hullboard 23, the lower end of which defines a space 24: between the saw cylinder 13 and itself for the escape of hulls. Between the lower end of the hullboard 17 and the adjacent end of the guard 19, an opening 25 is provided for the escape of hulls out of the machine, and a corresponding opening 26 is provided in connection with the saw cylinder 9. Beneath the three saw cylinders, there is located a drag belt 27 comprising two chains mounted on sprocket wheels 28 and provided at intervals with cross bars 29 which extend the full width of the machine or length of thesawvcylinders, so that all hulls and trash escaping through the openings 25, 26 and 24 fall through the bars to the bottom of the casing and are swept or dragged by the bars and discharged onto a screw-conveyor 30 which, in turn, discharges them from the machine through an outlet opening 31.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that as the seed cotton passes down the hullboard 17, the cotton will be engaged by the saw cylinder 5 and carried up beneath the kicker roll 6, which operates to knock back a large amount of the hulls and trash carried up with the cotton. These hulls and trash pass by the saw cylinder-through the opening 18 and fallthrough the opening 25.

dites dofiing the cotton from one The cotton passing under the kicker roll 6 is removed from the saw cylinder 5 by the doifer 7 and thrown directly onto the second saw cylinder 9, and the preceding operation is repeated, the doiier 11 throwing the cotton from the saw cylinder 9 directly onto the saw cylinder 13, and the third doifer 15 discharging the thoroughly cleaned cotton through the opening 16.

It will be seen that theworking surface of each saw cylinder after the first travels in an upward direction, that is, in a direction substantially opposed to that of the cotton thrown upon it by the doifer of the preceding saw cylinder. 1 This arrangement permits the saw cylinders to raise the cotton while permitting the hulls to fall past the saw cylinder and out of the opening provided for the discharge of hulls near the bottom side of each saw cylinder.

While, as stated, additional saw cylinders with co-operating kicker rolls and doffers may be employed if the character and condition of the cotton, or the amount of trash to be removed, should make a larger number of treatments necessary, ordinarily the use of three cleaning units arranged as shown will effect a thorough separation of the cotton from the, hulls and trash mixed therewith, so that for practical purposes, the cotton discarged from the last cleaning unit may be stated to be entirely free from hulls and trash.

It will be noted that the saw cylinders are arranged in horizontal order, which expesaw cylinder to another and at the same time providing separate and independent discharges for the trash and foreign matter removed.

This horizontal. arrangement of the different groups of separating elements at once differentiates the machine from the vertical arrangement which is more desirable where the hulls and trash instead of the cotton is being subjected to a series of separations for the purpose of obtaining a greater yield or percentage of cotton.

It is not essential to the invention, however, that a strictly horizontal arrangement of the saw cylinders should be provided, as they could be arranged ina plane more or. less inclined without departing from the spirit of the invention, the main essential be- .ing that the cotton separated by each saw jected to the action'of a succeeding saw cylinder.

It will be apparent that the hulls passing through the first discharge outlet 18 will also have some cotton mixed with them, and in actual practice, it is contemplated to subject the discharge of the product past the first saw cylinder to a further cleaning action.

menses However, the present invention is not concerned with this feature and no illustration of the apparatus involved is deemed necessary.

I claim: v

1. In a machine of the class described, a plurality of cotton separating and cleaning units arranged in operative relation to but independent of each other and in a substantially horizontal plane, each unit comprising a saw cylinder and a hullboard providing a space for the discharge of hulls and trash past the saw cylinder, and a dolfer mounted in spaced relation to each saw cylinder and operating to remove from the saw cylinder the cotton separated thereby from the hulls and trash, together with such hulls and trash as may adhere to the separated cotton, and to deliver the same to the next saw cylinder in succession, each succeeding saw cylinder having its working surface moving in a direction opposed to that of the cotton thrown upon ilt by the dofi'er of the preceding saw cylin- 2. In a machine of the class described, a plurality of cotton cleaning units arranged in operative relation to each other, each unit comprising a saw cylinder and a kicker roll co-operating therewith to separate some of the hulls and trash from the cotton, and a dofl'er mounted in spaced relation to each saw cylinder and operating to remove the cotton from the saw cylinder after it has passed the kicker roll, and to deliver same, with the remaining hulls and trash, directly to the saw cylinder of the next succeeding cleaning unit, each succeeding saw cylinder having its working surface separated from the workin surface of the preceding saw cylinder an moving in a direction opposed to that of the cotton thrown upon it by the dofier of the preceding saw cylinder.

3. In a machine of the class described, a plurality of cotton cleaning units arranged in operative relation to each other in a substantially horizontal plane, each unit comprising a saw cylinder and a kicker roll cooperating therewith to separate some of the hulls and trash from the cotton, and a dofl'er mounted in spaced relation to each saw cylinder and operating to remove the cotton from the saw cylinder after it has passed the kicker roll, and to deliver same, with the remaining hulls and trash, directly to the saw cylinder of the next succeeding cleaning unit, each succeeding saw cylinder having its working surface separated from the working surface of the preceding saw cylinder and moving in a direction op osed to that of-the cotton thrown upon it y the dofier of the preceding saw cylinder.

4. In a machine of the class-described, a plurality of cotton separating and cleaning units arranged in operative relation to but independent of each other, each unit comprising a, saw cylinder, a hullboard roviding a space for the free discharge of ulls and trash past the saw cylinder, and a doifer mounted in spaced relation to the saw cylinder, each of said dofl'ers being positioned and operating to deliver the separated cotton and such trash andhulls as may adhere thereto removed from its saw cylinder, directly to the saw cylinder of the next cleaning unit in succession.

5. In a machine of the class described, a plurality of cotton separating and cleaning units arranged in operative relation to but independent of each other and in a substantially horizontal plane, each unit comprising a saw'c-ylinder, a hullboard providing a space for the free discharge of hulls and trash past the saw cylinder, and a dofi'er mounted in spaced relation to the saw cylinder and operating to remove from the saw-cylinder the cotton separated thereby from the hulls and trash, together with such hulls and trash as may adhere to the separated cotton, and to deliver the same directly to the next saw JOHN E. MITCHELL. 

